Range and Habitat

Dotterel: Migrant visitor and summer breeder. Breeding grounds are restricted to the highest elevations in Scotland. May occur in Ireland during migration. In spring the birds use traditional stopping places in easternmost England on return from their Mediterranean winter home. Habitat includes both gravel and mudflats.

SONGS AND CALLS

Voice Text

"pweet-pweet-pweet"

INTERESTING FACTS

Dotterels obtain their diet of insects and small invertebrates by using a run-and-pause technique, rather than the probing used by other wader groups.

A consequence of the friendly and trusting nature of this bird is that the name "dotterel" now carries a negative connotation.

This medium-sized member of the plover family is unusual in that the adult female is brighter than the male–an indication of their role-reversal in raising the young.

RELATED BIRDS

RANGE MAP

FAMILY DESCRIPTION

The taxonomic order CHARADRIIFORMES (pronounced kah-RAH-dree-ih-FOR-meez) is composed of waterbirds such as auks, gulls, long-toed Jacanas, and plovers.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

In the plover family, Charadriidae (pronounced kar-ad-RYE-uh-dee), there are sixty-seven species in ten genera distributed nearly worldwide (IOC World Bird List, version 2.3).

EUROPE

There are sixteen species of plovers in five genera in Europe. Members of this family include the well- known Lapwing, the Ringed Plover, and the golden-plovers.

KNOWN FOR

Plovers are known for their distinctive behaviour of running a short distance, pausing, and then running again. Some species have distraction displays around the nest where they noisily feign a broken wing to attract the attention of anyone or anything that comes too close to their young.

PHYSICAL

Plovers are small birds with rounded, pigeon-like heads, long pointed wings for fast flight, and short tails. They have fairly long legs with short toes and rather short bills.

COLORATION

Dull colours such as brown, grey, black, and white are the most frequent colours seen in plover plumages. Dark colours are usually found on the upperparts and white on the underparts with several species having black markings on the head and neck. Exceptions are the handsome breeding plumages of the Grey Plover and golden-plovers (these show black on the underparts), the Eurasian Dotterel with rufous underparts, and lapwing species that show bits of red or yellow on their legs and bills.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

The plover family occurs throughout Europe in non-forest habitats. One of the most common species, the Lapwing, occupies a variety of open habitats ranging from coastal areas to meadows and farmlands; however some less common species, such as the Dotterel, prefer areas such as steppe or stony grasslands with very little vegetation at all. Other plover species occur in wet fields, beaches, mud flats, and salt pans.

MIGRATION

Plovers are mostly long distance migrants that winter from southern Europe to Africa and southern Asia.

HABITS

Plovers form pairs during the breeding season, but occur in flocks during migration and winter. At all times of the year, members of this family have a distinctive mode of feeding whereby they take a few quick steps, then pause to stoop and pick an insect from the ground.

CONSERVATION

The Sociable Lapwing, a primarily central Asian species that barely reaches Europe in eastern Russia, is a critically endangered species. It is estimated to have a population of only eleven thousand birds, having dropped to this low number due to changes in the steppe habitats they require. Although their population may now be marginally increasing due to habitat improvements, the Sociable Lapwing is still threatened by hunting on their wintering grounds in the Middle East.

INTERESTING FACTS

In some areas, the Lapwing is called the “Pee-wit" in reference to the frequent, difficult to ignore vocalisations it gives. The origin of the term “lapwing" is unknown but could refer to its floppy manner of flying, the “lapping" sounds made by its wings in flight, or its tendency to distract potential predators away from its nest by feigning a broken wing.

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters
of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus)
and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante
(2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42
(Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported
by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990 s as a cooperative project among several federal agencies to improve and
expand upon taxonomic data (known as the NODC Taxonomic Code) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).

To find the ITIS page for a bird species go to the ITIS web site advanced search and report page at http://www.itis.gov/advanced_search.html.
You can enter the TSN or the common name of the bird. It will return the ITIS page for that bird. Another way to obtain the ITIS page is to use
the Google search engine. Enter the string ITIS followed by the taxonomic ID, for example "ITIS 178041" will return the page for the Allen's Hummingbird.